One Day I Shall Astonish the World

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One Day I Shall Astonish the World by the always entertaining Nina Stibbe is a story of female friendship' Irish Times, Books To Look Out For In 2022 A delightfully comic taleof the ups and downs of a female friendship over 30 years, in which the author of Love, Nina and Reasons to Be Cheerful casts her eye over marriage, motherhood and the ageing process."

If you like books with big plots and action, this will not be one for you! It spans 30 years and Susan leads a very quiet life. What this mainly focuses on is observations on life and the relationships between the characters, particularly Susan and Norma. They go from very close friends to hardly talking on a personal level, there's some undercurrents of frenemies at times. Norma is almost like a mirror to what Susan's life could have been if marriage and children hadn't haltered her education and career. At times I felt so sorry for Susan, aching for recognition but at times she is very frustrating, especially when she doesn't stand up for herself with Norma. A tale of two women. On one hand we have Susan, the dishwater dull protagonist who shows early academic and intellectual promise that she fails to live up to. On the other hand we have Norma, an almost sociopathically independent woman who excels at everything she touches. These two friends meet in their youth when Susan takes a job in the fabric shop owned by Norma's parents. Despite Susan's technical seniority, Norma is made manageress (Susan's/Stibbe's word, not mine) because of her family connection, and this sets the stage for the entirety of their relationship for the next two decades. While there may be echoes of previous greats, however, Stibbe's voice is utterly her own . . . One Day I Shall Astonish the World is, u nsurprisingly, very funny. But it might also be Stibbe's most moving novel yet . . . so hilarious and rewarding * Irish Business Post *I love Nina Stibbe and her new novel, One Day I Shall Astonish the World, is such a lovingly observed testament to the complexities and profundities of female friendship' Elizabeth Day It's darker than Stibbe's previous novels, but her trademark wit is still in evidence and her odd and eccentric characters remind us that we are odd and eccentric too! * Red, Book of the Month * Nina Stibbe is the hero of finding your voice…She puts words together with an immaculate ear for the absurd, mixing satire and bathos, juxtaposing quirkily unlike objects and sentiments in sentences so funny you howl with laughter. But underneath is a sharp-eyed, non-judgmental message about tolerating other people – people very different from yourself…her new novel is Elena Ferrante re-scripted as English comedy…wayward, wildly original and beautifully noticing.”— THE TELEGRAPH One Day I Shall Astonish the World by the always entertaining Nina Stibbe is a story of female friendship * Irish Times, Books To Look Out For In 2022 * Stibbe writes some of the best-turned comic sentences in contemporary writing. Like Susan, she makes it look easier than it must be' Sunday Times

I love everything Nina Stibbe writes and this was my favourite of the novels. It's so sharp and painful and brilliantly funny. There are sentences you could eat for Christmas dinner. If you haven't read it already - you probably have but just in case - I really do think you'd love it -- Katherine Rundell I’m such a big fan of Nina Stibbe’s memoir Love, Nina, but for some unexamined reason I had never read any of her fiction. There is the same warm voice in this book - narrated by a middle-aged female protagonist of middle age, presumably not so different from the author herself - and the same appreciation for life’s absurdities, but somehow it just wasn’t as successful at winning me over. Nina Stibbe takes on female friendship and ambition in a novel that has all its predecessors' gossipy bookishness and quirky charm' Observer Later sections that chart the pandemic at first seem tokenistic, but Stibbe ties it all together in this moving ode to marriage and friendship, to lives unlived, chances untaken, and the great joke of agency in a world where everything can turn upside down in a heartbeat. Sarah Gilmartin Nina Stibbe is one of our most beloved comic writers: One Day I Shall Astonish The World...about the lifelong friendship between two women, will cement that reputation further.”— DAILY MAIL

Nina Stibbe Press Reviews

I think I should have read the blurb better for this book, as with the title I was expecting either some coming of age story, or for someone to tire of their dull existence and overhaul their whole life. I'd also seen lots of quotes about how funny this was and was really looking forward to it.